Bots are the new big thing in Social Media and quickly changing the way we interact with services. These bots or chatbots are lightweight apps which live within messengers such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, Kik, Viber, LINE, Telegram or other messaging apps.
The 2017 edition of David Pichsenmeister's annual Bot Trends report covers today's messaging growth and an in-depth look at the following:
1. Global Messaging Trends - Messengers have surpassed traditional Social Media and already one of the most used apps on Smartphones
2. Global Bot Trends - Distribution channels are shifting from Apps to lightweight apps built on top of existing platforms
3. Conversational Interface - Natural language and Voice is gaining more and more popularity through latest enhancements in AI and machine learning, as for example with Amazon Alexa, Siri or Google Home
4. Structured Input and Webviews - Predefined templates and micro websites giving developers the opportunity to build app like experiences on top of messaging apps
5. Canonical Interfaces - Existing usecases and channels will be transferred to streamlined and comprehensive experiences
6. Group Messaging - Adding bots to groups or interacting with them on the fly in existing conversations will open up completely new experiences for users
7. Human Supervision - Traditional customer care agents are transitioning into a new role, supervising chat bots
8. Bot Discovery - How bots will be discovered on different messaging networks